Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The
early days of FM broadcasting were interesting, to say the least. The
genesis of FM came from the brilliant mind of Major Edwin Armstrong, who
had done much to improve AM yet still hated it ... he hated the sound
and he knew the limitations (some of which have more recently been
solved) including static interference from both local sources --
household motors, etc. -- and atmospheric, such as lightening; limited
audio quality; and interference between stations, especially at night.

Anyway,
Reader and radio engineer Bob Burchett has some interesting tidbits
regarding early FM broadcasting, especially as it pertains to local
powerhouse KBIG (104.3 FM).

“KBIG started in 1959 on FM simulcasting the same audio as an AM
station (KBRT) on Catalina Island owned by John Poole. It was Poole who
hired the venerable Carl “Mr. Big” Bailey, the first DJ at KBIG. And it
was Bailey who was the “BIG” that became the call sign. To make it
really cool it was also the big POWER being 65,000 watts (to this day)
which is pretty phenomenal … grandfathered in and all; we could NEVER
get a station licensed legally with that much power these days! We used
to laugh that to hear the station your radio didn’t even need a battery
in it.

“SCA
(Sub Carrier Authorization) came into being for stereo-only stations
during the transition period when owners had to buy incredibly expensive
equipment to transmit stereo to radios that could not even lock-on to
the 19 KC pilot tone that that causes the radio to decode stereo (the
stereo light glowing on your radio is triggered by that as well). In
other words, they were sending stereo to radios that mostly could not
even pick it up!

“But
KBIG had SCA, and they were tagged by the SCA Paging company to
transmit numeric data paging (beepers by another name) so folks could
dial-in to the paging terminal and the signal was transmitted by KBIG in
Los Angeles, as well as stations in each major metropolis across the
United States.”

The New KCLA

It
is Burchett, by the way, who is behind San Pedro’s own KCLA -- Calling
Los Angeles, a low-power station broadcasting from the top of a hill in
Palos Verdes. With one watt. And you wonder why you never heard them.

Burchett
says the current location is and was always going to be temporary in
order to keep the licensing process alive. He is working on moving it to
a lower elevation thus allowing a legal increase to a maximum of 100
watts.

Reunion

By
the time you read this, KFWB as you know it will be gone. Of course
many feel that happened already. Twice or three times. But Monday
February 29th was the last day for The Beast 980; in its place is a
syndicated South Asian format known as Desi 980.

Former
KFWB reporter Steve Kindred checked in to say that a reunion for anyone
who has ever received a paycheck from the station” is planned for 5 PM
March 12 at the Golden Dragon Restaurant, 960 North Broadway in
Chinatown. There is a sign-up page in Google Groups, and you can contact
Kindred or engineer Richard Rudman for details. If you are an alumni
and having trouble getting information, drop me a line and I’ll forward
it to Kindred.

Quick correction

I
had it right. My computer changed it. Last week’s mention of KPOP
changing to KGRB and later KTNQ should have stated KGBS instead of KGRB.
KRGB -- as mentioned the week prior -- was a station playing Big Band
music on 900 AM.